“You would-be plotters of the curves of life…bound for me the mystic wild parabola of love.” —A. Rutledge
In case we have forgotten who this man is, so engulfed in grief, he gives us a little reminder. “I have sewn sackcloth over my skin, and laid my head in the dust. My face is flushed from weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death; although no violence is in my hands, and my prayer is pure” (Job 16:15-17). Surely the one who believes in the Lord has the right to think that life should make sense. But Job just couldn’t balance the equation. The apostle Peter (who had also been gripped by the talons of the great red dragon) answered the question, “Who cares to have a life worth having, a life which makes a man glad to live?” (Ellicott). See 1 Peter 3:10-12, quoted from Psalm 34:13-17. Then, “Let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it” (1 Pet 3:10-11). These were the elements Job thought he could check off in his life. So why was he not seeing “good days”? Does earth care that he is being mistreated (Job 16:18)? Does heaven not have the evidence of his life lived for God (v 19)? If his friends scorn him (v 20), is there no one who will plead his cause before the Lord (v 21)? It seems his life is a dead-end street, and he’ll soon “go the way of no return” (v 22). Yet in spite of all this, we’re about to listen in on Job’s anguished prayer to the Lord (17:1-16). If he feels like this, why would he still go to God? Again, Peter gives the answer. When multitudes were abandoning the Savior, Jesus asked His disciples, “Do you also want to go away?” (Jn 6:67). But really, what are the only options? The black hole of hopeless despair or clinging still to the Savior. “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (v 68).